TTC Public Art Program

Station upgrades

Art is an important component of major station upgrades (including the Easier Access and Second Exit construction improvement projects). On June 5, 2017, TTC unveiled art concepts for 7 stations that are either under construction or scheduled for construction in the near future.

Images of art concepts at various subway stations. Click each image to expand.

On June 5, 2017 TTC presented the public art concepts for these stations with all of the artists present to explain their work.

Public art concepts for stations are selected by an art jury including one local representative for each station. The concepts will be available for viewing on this site. Following the open house, the concepts and public feedback will be presented to the TTC Board and approval. The selected artists will then develop the artwork with TTC Chief Architect and the TTC construction project teams prior to installation.

Chester Station - Katharine Harvey: FLORAE

FLORAE is a series of wall mosaics and art glass elements that serve to reflect the community that inhabits the Chester subway neighbourhood. The area is full of parks and green spaces, and the residents take pride in their gardens. Inspired by native plants and flowers of the area, the artwork draws from the sugar maple, eastern cottonwood, butternut tree, yellow coltsfoot flower, and red skunk cabbage, among many other species. Shifting and cascading hues depict the florae in changing seasons.

King Station - Sean Martindale: Light Canopy

Light Canopy is an animated lighting system set into the ceiling above the stairwell at King Station’s western entrance. As pedestrians pass under, they will experience the feeling of being under sun dappled trees, with beams reflecting and passing through foliage. The dynamic, animated band of light is made up of an array of programmed LEDs spanning the underside of a diffusing semi-transclucent surface. Light Canopy will be programmed to follow natural circadian light cycles. The artwork will be continually changing; a piece that the public will get to experience in new ways each time they see it.

Runnymede Station - Elicser Elliot: Anonymous Somebody

Anonymous Somebody captures the snippets of our bustling Bloor West Village lives while standing still. The artworks aims to communicate the story of individual spirt as fresh and relevant to the metabolism of the neighbourhood. The images work as an anchor to a thought or memory for the person viewing it - to commemorate, celebrate, provoke, and heal. Not unlike Runnymede, a house that became a community, Anonymous Somebody welcomes all passengers to reframe the characters’ experience as they pass or wait, fluidly transitioning from past lives to present, making the artwork their own.

Sherbourne Station – Rebecca Bayer: The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts

The mosaics offer a friendly invitation to all people in the universal language of colours and geometric triangular patterns. The proposed artwork will be a series of colourful mosaic wall panels based on patterns derived from local community workshops. This project conceptually embodies the interdependence of parts within the whole. The panels will be fabricated from custom ceramic tiles, and applied at various locations throughout the station. Sherbourne station is an important transit hub for the multicultural neighbourhoods it serves and this proposed artwork intends to reaffirm the station as a shared place where the wider community interacts daily.

St. Patrick Station – Barbara Todd: Many Little Plans

Jane Jacobs, Toronto’s revered urban activist, advised “Make many little plans” as a key ingredient for the creation of a healthy urban environment. Many Little Plans will consist of over 400 ceramic tiles installed within the alcoves of the subway platform. Every tile will portray the silhouette of a person, each with his/her unique pattern. Photographs of local residents and the station’s users, taken with full participation of the subjects, will be inserted throughout the artwork. Many Little Plans will be a compendium of ages, genders, ethnicities and walks of life, reminding viewers of the vibrant diversity of Toronto’s urban population.

Wilson Station - LeuWebb: Outside the Lines

Outside the Lines is born of the language and materials of the subway system and Wilson Station’s surrounding community. Taking the omnipresent steel handrail tube, Outside the Lines transforms this simple material into an interactive sculpture and wayfinding device. The installations are formed from durable, powder-coated steel tubes mounted to various surfaces throughout the site. In addition to the enhancement and animation of the new work, the piece provides both amenity and wayfinding for Wilson Station. Complementing the physically interactive environment of Wilson Station through a similarly tactile artwork is an integral component of Outside the Lines.

Directions Intersections Connections is a vibrant relief mural to be installed on the north-facing wall of the Woodbine Station Bus Platform. The mural refers to the covering of distance depicted as time and transport – fashioned with bright hues and graphic patterns. The artwork pursues the visual means by which a project can appear abstract and yet simultaneously offer a composite narrative. At over 1,000 square feet, the brightly coated metal panels of the mural express the motion and directional routes of transit, the intersections of communities and place, and the connections of site to both the present and the past.